Unmanned aerial vehicles, or UAVs, are invaluable tools for intelligence gathering because they are pilotless and reduce exposure and risk to human life during their operation. They find application above battle fields and in other hazardous environments, and can be fitted with information-gathering equipment such as cameras configured to acquire images of the terrain below. The images can be video or still and can be stored for subsequent retrieval, or transmitted in real-time to a remote home station for storage or analysis.
Typically, the UAV-mounted camera is disposed in a gimbaled turret below the fuselage of the camera. The turret is movable by a remote operator having radio frequency (RF) communication with the UAV, its flight controls, and its various equipment, including the camera. Moving the gimbaled turret, with its camera, enables the operator to concentrate attention on a particular area of interest, for example to capture higher resolution images of the area of interest, or to scan over a broad region in order to pick up any activity that warrants greater scrutiny, either in real time or during subsequent analysis of the images.